By Kimone Witter
The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) is still facing push back for its decision to remove School Based Assessments (SBAs) for some subjects, with one local principal concerned that there will be fewer passes in future sittings of Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).
Principal of Old Harbour High School, Lynton Weir, has expressed disappointment with the CXC leadership.
He has also criticised the Jamaican government for not challenging the decision, noting that the country has the largest number of students sitting the regional exams.
Mr. Weir argued that SBAs are critical to the development of students and help to shore up their exam results.
“I think Jamaica should have [stood] up to say no, and it should not have been a situation where CXC made it mandatory and decided that they are able to abandon the utilisation of SBA. SBAs are very, very important and now that they have decided to remove SBA, I think our CXC result is going to go down. Why is it? I think CXC results will go down because SBA contributed a significant percentage of the final grade for our students, and… because SBA allow our students to do a lot of research, now that it has been removed, our students will not be able to learn the art of research and gathering information by themselves,” he reasoned.
In announcing the changes in July, CXC said the reforms to the SBA framework were aimed at strengthening assessment integrity across CAPE and CSEC in response to the rapid rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence and other technological innovations.
SBAs will remain for practical and hands-on subjects such as Information Technology, Visual Arts and Physical Education.
But Mr. Weir believes the concern about Artificial Intelligence is not sufficient reason to do away with SBAs altogether.
“What [is it] that we were trying to escape? We were trying to escape our students utilising AI. But if you look at the University of the Technology, 20 per cent is allowed for AI. NCU allows 30 per cent for AI. What is most important is for us to teach our students how to utilise AI and give credit to the individuals who need to be given credit. But I don’t think we should have removed it,” he contended.
Mr. Weir is not in support of the alternative Paper 032 to School Based Assessments, which he said will cause some schools to suffer.
In a phased transition, beginning in May/June next year, some CXC candidates will be required to complete the SBA replacement, under examination conditions.
The Old Harbour High principal said his institution will be among those at a serious disadvantage.
“Whenever time we have large examination, I have 400 students that write exam at any one time. So let us say when we have large exam, like mathematics, all of my Grade 9 students have to stay home. When we are doing English, all of my Grade 8 stay home. When we are doing social studies, all of my grade 7 stay home. Now that we are going to have a Paper 3, where more students will be writing exam, it means that more students will be staying out of the physical space. So when we need to look at those parameters as well, so when making decisions, we must make decisions where all of us can benefit,” said Mr. Weir, who was addressing a function at the school over the weekend.
CXC has said CAPE candidates in non-practical subjects will transition to Paper 032 beginning with the May-June 2027 examinations.
For CSEC candidates, schools will have the option in 2027 of administering either the traditional SBA or Paper 032 before the full transition to Paper 032 becomes mandatory in the May-June 2028 examination cycle.